“Agreed, Oz, and good. The sooner we’re gone, the better. Which is why I came to get you. We’ve found the entrance to the lower levels.”
The narrow stairwell stretched so far down, we couldn’t see the bottom. This had to be the entrance to Korthican’s lair.
I took out my old crawler light charm and set it floating in the air above my head. A few of the others had light charms as well, which was good, seeing as we didn’t have anything to make torches out of unless we busted parts off one of the boats.
There was a significant amount of sand on the steps, but it hadn’t been disturbed recently with tracks. It appeared the monsters didn’t go down there very often. Probably because they’d learned the hard way that what looked like a perfectly good cave was too dangerous. Powerful wizards loved them some traps.
The Outcasts had turned out to be fairly decent at fighting unarmed mutants, but this was the part I’d really been dreading.
“Well, let’s get to getting, then.” Rufus began walking down the stairs, but Azarin snagged him by the arm. “What?”
“Hold your eagles. This is an old wizard’s laboratory. There’s bound to be fifty curses down there waiting to kill us.”
“She’s right. Korthican was on the Council. Mages like that are always jealous of their secrets. One wrong step…” Rade clapped his hands together. “Dead! There will surely be many traps, both magical and mundane mechanical.”
“Not to mention they like to leave behind things like golems or guardian spirits,” Danny added. “And those can linger for centuries! Only activating when some foolish adventurer does something that draws its wrath.” When we all looked at him, a bit surprised that our young Under Slumper knew about such things, he shrugged. “I had a cousin who was in a mercenary adventuring company and he used to tell us stories, until he got his face ripped off by a tomb wraith.”
Brave Rufus Rudnik wasn’t about to have the potential removal of his face dissuade him from glory. “No need to worry. We’ve got Carnavon. He was a trapper. Naturally, he must be an expert about all things trap-related.”
“There’s got to be a vast difference between what I did to catch Fire Elementals, and whatever fifteenth-level mages leave behind to deter thieves.”
But even as I said that, I reasoned the basic principles were probably the same. Traps were all about deception and temptation. Fire Elementals were angry and hungry and liked to roast living things, so we’d use ourselves as bait to lure them in. Thieves were lured in by the promise of treasure. We were the dumb Fire Elementals.
“If you see something you want to touch, don’t. If it looks valuable, it’s probably there to tempt you. I’ll take the lead. Be sure to only step where I’ve stepped. We’re going to take it real slow. Don’t clump up. That’ll just cause more casualties if a trap gets tripped.”
“Yeah… How about I stay up here and guard the door?” Bognar asked. “You know, in case the monsters come back? Or Morton and the scary girl shows up?”
“That’s a good idea.” Bognar was a big oaf and constantly bumping into things in places where everything wasn’t designed to kill us. Rufus wasn’t nearly as clumsy, but he was a bit ofa dimwit, and I didn’t want him curiously poking at any shiny things. “How about you keep him company, Rufus?”
“What? Do you doubt the courage of House Rudnik?” he sputtered, offended. “Howdareyou?”
“Fine. You can come too, but do exactly as I say and no touchinganything.”
“I’ll stand watch with Bognar,” Danny volunteered. “I’m happy with my face remaining attached to the skull bones beneath. Unlike Cousin Fredrick.”
I wasn’t sad to see Danny stay where it was safer. He struck me as fairly clever, and would surely be safer around the rest of us than our idiot dwarf, but he was such an earnest kid, if he died while under my responsibility, I’d feel terrible about it.
On that note, I looked toward my girlfriend.
“Don’t you even fucking dare ask me to stay where it’s safe, Ozwald Carnavon. I’ve got a far lighter step than you do.”
Rade laughed at that. “I’ll go as well. This isn’t my first foray into the dark.”
“Were any of those mausoleums you’ve robbed strewn with traps?”
Rade shrugged. “If they were, I was lucky enough to not step on any of them!”
Azarin was incredibly graceful, and though Rade lied constantly, the one thing he was honest about was being a good swordsman, and he had the footwork to match. That left me with three more rather large, heavy specimens to worry about. Trax was thick, but he also had that unnerving Squalo dexterity, so he was probably good at avoiding danger. I was mostly worried about him eating things he shouldn’t. But Krachma was a hulking, ponderous brute, and Sifuso was skinny and really tall. He was normally quick, but the cold was seriously slowing him down a bit.
Having already offended our dwarf, I kept my suggestion gentle. “It might be tight quarters down there.”
Sifuso flicked his forked tongue at me, before hunching over to make himself a little shorter. “There.”
“Krachma canImpervious.” That was the name of our lob’s potent protective spell that temporarily turned his skin impenetrable as a rock. “Can youImpervious?”
“You know, I’ve not been able to figure out any of your earth magic yet.”
“I have,” Azarin said proudly. “Kind of. Sometimes.”
